New head coach has high hopes for Bearcats Football

August 10, 2011

A lot of changes have been taking place at Antlers Public Schools. They have not only welcomed a new Superintendent of schools but also a new head football coach onto their staff.

Coach Wright graduated from Eufaula High School and went on to play ball at Bacone College in Muskogee. After graduation he was hired by his former high school football coach to coach his offensive line at Madill. Coach Wright was the offensive line coach at Madill for the past three seasons. He is accompanied by his loving wife, Lauren, who he says is very understanding and supportive of everything he does, especially when it comes to the time and attention he has to dedicate to football season.

Coach Wright said that the decision to become a football coach was an easy one to make, and it was made at the young age of 8 years-old when he played the game for the first time and knew he wanted to do something that involved the game. â€śAfter playing so long, I had some great coaches along the way and I wanted to be like them.â€ť said Wright. â€śSo it was a no brainer for me to get into coaching.â€ť

During an interview I asked Coach Wright a series of questions. Here are his answers.

Q: How do you define success?
A: Success is being the best possible person you can be.Â I donâ€™t put numbers to success as far as wins and losses because we believe that if your being the best person you can be that stuff will take of itself.

Q: What steps will you take to improve the overall grades of your players?Â
A: They have to understand that if they don't have the grades they can't play.Â I also constantly do grade checks and if one of my students/ athletes starts to struggle I work with them to get their grades back up.Â Football doesnâ€™t last forever, less than 1% of high school athletes get to go on and play college ball, so they need to have an education to accomplish what they want in life.

Q: What do you feel is your greatest strength as a coach, and weakness?
A: Desire. I deeply desire to have a great program that this community can be proud of and will push the kids to that point. Weakness, Iâ€™m young.Â Which can be good and bad.Â I will have great enthusiasm, but could also make some first year head coach mistakes.

Q: What should the top priorities of your players be?
A: #1 Family, #2 Faith, #3 School, #4 Being an outstanding person and #5 Football.

Q: What do you feel is the purpose of high school football?
A: To give these young men life skills that will propel them through life like teamwork and pushing themselves.

Q: What is your practice philosophy?
A: To out work everyone in the state everyday.

Q: How do you evaluate players?
A: We grade our players each week based on their knowledge of the scheme we want them to know.Â Our big evaluation as a team and individuals is, did we get better today?

Q: What is your offensive system?
A: We have multiple offensive systems, we do what is going to put our kids in the best position to win games. They will have to have great fundamentals and score.

Q: What is your defensive system?
A: We have multiple defensive fronts, we are going to align our kids to take away what the other team wants to do. They will have to be great tacklers, be physical and force turnovers while spending as little time on the field as possible.

â€śIf we work as hard as we can everyday, coaches and players, take care of academics and be great young men, we will make this program into something that everyone can be proud of.â€ť